You don't have to "rely" on it just like you don't have the rely on `fmt.Println()` in golang for debugging.
A language/runtime/framework gives you options and you pick your poison, browsers offer you step by step debuggers and REPL out of the box and I actually think it's awesome in terms of debugging, you can of course only use console.log(), and it's a good place to start. When you're ready to move on there are many more useful tabs in the browser devtools to debug with.
What worries me is that, apparently, there are many people with a lot of web dev experience who haven't moved on. Why haven't they moved on? I don't understand it.
I have yet to see a mid-level engineer using the same method when debugging C# code.
Despite all that, I try to refrain from strong statements about technologies. Just throwing around ideas.
A language/runtime/framework gives you options and you pick your poison, browsers offer you step by step debuggers and REPL out of the box and I actually think it's awesome in terms of debugging, you can of course only use console.log(), and it's a good place to start. When you're ready to move on there are many more useful tabs in the browser devtools to debug with.